AirbnblaunchesabrandnewtabletappforApple'siPad

Airbnb, the community-driven hospitality company, has just unveiled a brand new app designed for Cupertino’s tablet. You can download the application now on the App Store (it’s a universal build, with support having been added to the Airbnb iPhone app), and it’s available free of charge.

The app, which is also available on Android devices, promises users “a magazine-quality way to browse and book Airbnb.” It provides folks with access to the service’s 1 million listings, but when running on the iPad, Airbnb adopts an elegant appearance and feels “as beautiful as reading a glossy magazine,” the service promises. “From viewing treehouses in Costa Rica to villas in Tuscany, travelers can explore incredible destinations around the world in stunning high resolution images and then book their next trip directly on the device,” the company explained in a recent press release.

Alex Schleifer, head of design at Airbnb, said:

Whether you’re on your couch at home, at a coffee-shop, or on the bus, we wanted to ensure that Airbnb can always be with you. Our tablet apps were inspired by the elegance of magazines and coffee table books and we tried to instill some of that lean-back feeling as we thought about how to make the experience unique. Designing for a new platform allowed us to think much more broadly than simply scaling a mobile phone app to a larger screen, and, as a result, you can now efficiently explore listings around the world while enjoying a rich, inspiring experience.

The aim behind the update, you see, was for the tablet iteration of Airbnb’s mobile app to feel more like a picture book, “where a trip starts the moment a person flips it open.” As such, you can expect gorgeous photography in the release, as well as attractive, well designed typography, too. You can browse through items in the application or perform searches, and these integrate with maps in order to provide users with more information on a particular area.

Here’s a complete list of features, as outlined in a recently published press release:

Immersive maps that share more about the listings to help people decide whether to dive deeper into the content

Listing pages that showcase the cinematic images in high-resolution

Seamless flow through the app that reacts to touch rather than a point and click, which keeps people engaged as they move through the booking experience

An in-depth Discover page offering curated listings, wishlists, and experiences around the world

A message system specifically built for a tablet with dual-pane view for the first time on Airbnb

In related news, Apple senior vice president of Design Jony Ive recently penned an entry for Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky as part of Time Magazine’s “100 most influential people” feature. The same feature saw Tim Cook get a mention, and here congressman John Lewis praised the CEO’s “grace and courage” as chief executive officer of the most valuable company in the world.